St. Armands parking rules eased

After St. Armands Circle business owners balked over new parking restrictions, city commissioners decided Monday to reverse constraints merchants said impinged on shopping.

In the past couple months, city parking enforcement staff began cracking down on how long people could remain in the painted parking spots along the streets and around the circle near the popular tourist destination.

The stricter rules were generating revenue for parking management but there are other ways to pay for that, Commissioner Shannon Snyder said.

By Thanksgiving, the city plans to get rid of the designated parking boxes painted around the circle and replace the signs with new enforcement hours with another set of signs that return to the old hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

City Parking Manager Chris Lyons proposed keeping the current hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and putting stickers on the signs stating enforcement runs Monday through Friday instead of the current Monday through Saturday. The partial change would save on the cost of replacing all the signs, he said.

"I think that suggestion is a penny wise and a pound foolish," said St. Armands Business Improvement District Chairman Marty Rappaport, who called the enforcement lately "devastating."

"It's their business on the line," Commissioner Terry Turner said. "We're here to serve them. I don't think we should be compromising."